Future Days
by Is you heart in the game
Summary: Due to different circumstances, Soul and Maka are awake in the night. Fluff ensues.


**a/n: So it's been a while since I've gotten an idea for a Soul Eater story. Snowy Days, my two-part story I started in the summer, has been conspicuously chapter two-less for quite some time now. I'll finish it someday! Shout out to Kait for giving me the Soul Eater necklace I wear every day :D**

Soul was sitting in class, doodling on a blank paper and anxiously looking at the faceless clock. Dr. Stein was square-dancing with Ox in the front of the room. Patti was engaged in an intense game of checkers with a manatee wearing scuba gear.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Soul tapped his pencil on the table, wondering how much longer he had to endure the hard-backed seat and lack of electronics. Suddenly, the classroom door burst open, and his partner came running in.

Soul looked up with a start- hadn't Maka been sitting beside him only moments before? Dr. Stein and the other students seemed completely unaware of her intrusion; a volleyball game had spurred in which a coconut was being tossed around and bunted like it was nothing more than a balloon.

Maka ran up to Soul's desk and stood on it. "The waffles are ready." She stated, and spontaneously burst into flames.

Soul opened his eyes with a start. The room was dark, with only a dull blue glow emanating from a small old lava lamp in the corner.

He was alone in the room.

His eyes shifted to the clock on his nightstand: it was 2:30 in the morning. He sat up slowly and pinched his nose, trying to erase the image of his meister's terrified eyes as the flames engulfed her.

Water. That was what he needed.

The sheets were tangled around his body and made getting up very difficult. It was customary for him, whenever he got up in the middle of the night for a snack or a bathroom trip, to don a shirt before leaving the bedroom. Sometimes Maka stayed up late into the night studying or finishing homework, and she did not appreciate Soul's bare chest, beautifully sculpted as he thought it was.

He crept quietly into the kitchen and filled a glass with water from the tap. Then he leaned against the counter and took a long sip. The silence of the house relaxed him.

Gradually¸ he became aware of an annoying tapping sound coming from the living room. He peeked around the corner. Maka was stretched across the couch in pajama shorts and a light tee shirt, the laptop resting on her stomach and a stack of papers beside her.

Soul sighed. He hated when Maka pushed herself like this. She may have been the smartest in the class and one hell of a meister, but she was still human.

He walked back into the kitchen and took down a few ingredients. He would help her through the night, just like he always did.

Maka was completely engrossed in whatever she was doing. She didn't hear the sound of the microwave or the crash of glass on tile when Soul dropped a cup on the kitchen floor.

In fact, she seemed completely unaware of Soul's very presence. It wasn't until he thrust the cup under her nose that she even raised her eyes from the computer screen. "Soul? What are you doing up?"

He handed her the mug of hot chocolate, which she gratefully accepted. He then shook out the blanket from her bed and draped it over her slender frame, folding it under the sides of her body so as to retain more warmth. Finally, he lifted up her legs and sat on the couch, resting her feet on his lap and leaning back like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I had a nightmare."

She placed the laptop aside and cradled the steaming mug in her hands. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Soul stared into her warm green eyes and was again berated with the image of Maka burning alive. He turned away. "No."

"Okay." They sat in silence for a few moments, Maka sipping at her hot cocoa and Soul feeling tired, but not quite ready to fall back asleep.

Finally Soul decided to break the quiet spell. "What are you working on?"

She avoided his gaze. "Just…stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" he persisted, knowing she would just snap at him.

Instead, she sighed. "I'm looking at job possibilities for after…after we graduate Shibusen."

Soul stared at her, uncomprehending.

"For after you become a death scythe." She expanded.

He couldn't find any words. The thought of not having Maka as his partner in the future had never crossed his mind, and it was painful to think about. His eyes ran over her bloodshot eyes, her pale features, and her blonde hair. It was a face that had become as, or perhaps more, familiar than his own. Without her he was…well, incomplete.

They were made to be partners. He couldn't imagine being so in sync with anyone else.

Maka folded under his gaze. "Never mind. It's stupid."

"It's not stupid. It's scary." Soul stated forcefully. She looked up in surprise.

"I'll always be around, even when you don't want me. And I definitely won't ditch you after you make me a death scythe." He flicked her nose. "Stop thinking like that. It's uncool."

She smiled. "Good. Because I like this. I like…where we are." Soul observed the comfortable position they both rested in, and the deep friendship they shared.

"Me, too."

There was no sound then, except for the occasional creak of the floorboard. For the first time in years, Soul felt completely at peace.

But the moment had to be broken. After all, the young pair had school the next morning and a busy schedule to keep to.

"Alright, time for bed." Soul instructed, standing up and stretching his back.

Maka moved to get up, then lay back on the couch and snuggled under the blanket. "Wake me up at seven."

Soul rolled his eyes. And she called him lazy? He scooped her up, blanket and all, and carried her down the hallway to her room. He seldom ever entered here, since Maka was always residing somewhere else in the house, and he had no real reason to enter the premises. The walls were painted a pale yellow. Everything was neat and orderly, with books organized by size and color and a white board with the week's events written on it. Around the room she had pasted pictures of the seven of them: Soul, Tsubaki, Black Star, Kid, Patti, Liz, and, of course, Maka.

Directly over her bed hung Soul's personal favorite: a black and white picture of the two of them from when they had first paired up. Make stood smiling with her hands behind her back, while Soul slouched off to the side, a grimace on his face. He had been so obsessed with image then. Now he barely gave a second thought about how he dressed or acted, and he knew Maka had never given it any thought to begin with.

Maka was a complicated girl. She was smart, even without her straight A's and battle plans. She was brave, even when she didn't think so. And, she was pretty, even though she didn't know so. Soul loved her deeply- as a friend.

He dropped her on the bed and tucked her in while she stared up at him with wide childish eyes.

"Night." He said, turning the lights off.

"Soul?"

He waited.

"Never mind. Good night."

He arrived back at his room and undressed for bed again. The room suddenly didn't feel as lonely and scary as it had before.

The dream from earlier that night was almost completely gone from his brain, now that he knew the girl from his horrific nightmare was safe and sound only a few steps away.

Soul thought about Maka before he fell back asleep; he thought about her laugh, her smile, the smell of her shampoo, the way she gave him a chance even when she didn't trust any men.

He thought about how sometimes he thought he was in love with her.

And he thought about how sometimes, when he thought about how he thought he was in love with her, he even thought it was true.

And then he thought no more, for the hypnosis of sleep had taken him into the Delta region of consciousness.

**a/n: Was it bad? Good? Any errors? Review and tell me all about it :)**

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